1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method for heating and cooling by means of a refrigerant, and an apparatus therefor.
2. Discussion of the Relevant Art
A method and an apparatus for heating and cooling with a refrigerant are already known. A conventional method for conditioning the air and an apparatus therefor is a heat pump. This method is to transfer the heat by circulating the refrigerant from a compressor back to the compressor through a condenser, expansion valve and evaporator. Since, in this method, the refrigerant generates or irradiates heat or creates a heating effect in the condenser, and absorbs heat or creates a cooling effect in the evaporator, the heat generated in the condenser is used when a room is to be heated, while the cooling effect created in the evaporator is used when the room is to be cooled. In order to have this accomplished, it is required to reverse the flow of the refrigerant dependent on whether the room is to be heated or to be cooled, and a four-way valve has been set up for changing flow of the refrigerant. In the conventional air conditioning, by means of the heat pump, the heat generated in the condenser is abandoned in open air when the room is to be cooled, and the cooling effect generated in the evaporator is abandoned in the open air when the room is to be heated. Thus, either heat or cold is always abandoned into the air.
Besides the air conditioning apparatus, there is a refrigerator in the apparatus for heating and cooling with the use of refrigerant. The refrigerator works based on the same principle as that used in the heat pump when the room is to be cooled, as discussed above. More particularly, this principle is such that the refrigerant is compressed by the compressor, directed from the condenser to the evaporator through the expansion valve, then returned to the compressor and circulated, and while the refrigerant is being circulated, brine and other anti-freezing solution is cooled by the cold generated in the evaporator, thereby obtaining a low temperature. In the refrigerator, the heat generated in the evaporator is absorbed by water and so on, which has been abandoned.
As discussed above, the heat generated in the case of cooling a room, and the cold generated in the case of heating a room are abandoned in the conventional air conditioning. In the case of the refrigerator, the cold alone is used, while the heat is abandoned. The reasons why either the heat or cold is abandoned, as discussed above, are based on the facts that the abandoned heat or cold has not reached a temperature for effective use and further that the abandoned heat or cold has not reached a sufficient amount worthy for effective use. However, it is to be noted that either the heat or the cold becoming abandoned is uneconomical when considered from a viewpoint of effective use of energy.
It is therefore an object of this invention to make effective use of both the heat and the cold generated in the conventional heating and cooling methods which makes use of a refrigerant. In order to accomplish this objective, the heat and the cold should be transferred separately to respective fluids, and . the temperature of fluid heated by the heat should be elevated and the temperature of another fluid cooled by the cold should be lowered, thereby producing a significant difference between the temperatures of the heated fluid and the cooled fluid.